The Humble Hummus: Mortar of Peace?

It is a well known and widely accepted fact that Abu Gosh is the hummus capital of the world. Imagine! A place in the world where the biggest dispute centers on who makes the best hummus.

Hummus!! To make matters even more amazing, let it be known that Abu Gosh is a small hillside town where both Israelis and Palestinians live smack in the middle of Israel. Israel!!!

On the one hand, it is charming that in the midst of a place as fraught with conflict as the modern State of Israel, human beings can stream their energy into a good natured, and relatively benign, though robust, cooking contest.

'Would that one day...someone creates a hummus so perfect, like manna, that the myth that Israel and Ishmael are enemies will be debunked once and for all.'

On the other hand it is predictable that even something as innocent (and subjective) as good hummus can be fodder for heated jousting.

Meanwhile the humble chick pea—boiled, mashed, mixed, spread and devoured—fills the gullets of a nation torn by eons of brokenness and conflict. Decades of misunderstanding , anxiety and frustration drive Jewish and Arab jaws. They gnash strips of ripped pita slathered with chickpea mortar, stimulating bile and acid to flow -- necessary if the whole mess is ever going to disintegrate into useable parts.

Like Hillel’s sandwich, simple bread is smeared with a much beloved concoction representing both poverty and satisfaction. Would that one day, in Abu Gosh, someone hits on the perfect recipe; creates a hummus so perfect, like manna, that the myth that Israel and Ishmael are enemies will be debunked once and for all. An innocent hope, yes, that a food as ubiquitous and mean as Hummus could release the best in conflicted peoples; could be the mortar that binds those broken brothers back together. But who knows? If anybody, perhaps it is the people of Abu Gosh.

Maggid Jhos Singer is probably the first maggid who officially serves the community through a major JCC. He holds an MA in Jewish Studies, earned in part by writing a thesis on the cultural value of Manischewitz wine.

Who knew that something like the shared love for a simple food like Hummus has the potential to cause competitive chaos? But what is so beautifully written here is the wish and hope that it just might bring people together to share a sampling of the best and thus even maybe, enjoy doing it. I know that I will now think about that every time I take a bite of Hummus from now on.

Thank you!

Posted by Linda S on 2014-05-14 23:43:12

Love this! So well written and thought-provoking. The hummus kerfuffle reminds me of how Costa Ricans and Nicaraguans are always arguing over gallo pinto, the ubiquitous Central American beans-and-rice dish. Who invented it, who makes it best, and is a true pinto made with red beans or black beans? Larger conflicts can sometimes be defused by or at least contained in smaller ones, about (for instance) sports or cooking.